Palace and Empire, the two wolf armies

[Tora]

Okay, I made a topic poll long time ago what to call the the two armies based on what I knew back then. Now it's not a poll but more where to discuss any info regarding the wolf armies over all.

But now, I dunno when as I'm bit more confident in my Japanese. And what I've gathered so far:
*Reima's pack's place is the Palace
*Gaia's pack's place is the Empire
*The Empire is in Hokkaido
*The Palace is close to at the forest of Mount Fuji and live under ground
*Reima calls himself 主, that I look up can mean Lord, Chief, Guardian spirit (e.g. long-resident beast, usu. with mystical powers), etc


I would like info of both original Japanese, and how Finnish has translated it. And when Manga Planet comes to this, some more info will come from there.

[Arctic Ranger]

I'm not generally reliable authority on Japanese, but I'd say it seems quite likely that the wolf communities are structured like the government/hiearchy of Imperial Japan. I do consider myself something of a history buff, especially when it comes to the last century and warfare, so I'd say there's themes and signs in the manga which draw parrallels between the Empire and (the irl) Empire.

I'd call Gaia and Reima "Emperors" based on that, but that's just me.

[Tora]

I found in Meteor Gin just now:

https://twitter.com/Ginga_Wiki/status/1 ... 4591954947

Army of the Wolf Kingdom (jap. 狼王国軍団, Ōkami Ōkoku Gundan)
and
Army Of Black Wolf's Empire (jap. 黒狼帝国軍団, Black Wolf Teikoku Gundan)

But I do wonder more what is said in manga itself. Gaia says he's Emperor Gaia (jap. 皇帝ガイア, Kōtei Gaia).

[Digsu]

Here's how I understand it:

Reima is the descendant of Gaou, who is explicitly called king (王). Additionally, the territory he established underground in Hokkaido is referred to as a kingdom (王国). However, since the kingdom was taken over by Purple Wolf and the other Empire wolves and Reima was banished to Honshuu, Reima is not a king himself; presumably if the Ohu dogs and Palace wolves had been successful in defeating the Imperial wolves without Reima dying and the whole place going up in flames, Reima would have reclaimed the kingdom and he'd properly been crowned king.

The thing with the Empire is... a bit messier. Gaia is the descendant of Black Wolf, and as far as I could find Black Wolf is never explicitly referred to as emperor in the manga, while his pack is simply called "Black Wolf's group" (黒狼集団). Additionally, Juga claims that he has served the empire for 200 years, "since they days of the previous emperor". This could either mean that Black Wolf was the previous emperor and the Empire ceased to be while the descendants of his pack lived in the underground kingdom, at least before they took over it, or that the Empire had crumbled sometime before Black Wolf's time and it was re-established when the kingdom was taken over. The reason I'm not totally sure which one it could be is because Gaou is said to have established the underground kingdom sometime in the Meiji era (1868-1912), so roughly 130-100 years before the events of GNG, and I'm not sure if "the previous emperor" and Black Wolf are meant to be different people or if Yoshi was implying that Black Wolf was like 80 years old when he took his pack to live in Gaou's underground kingdom (which wouldn't make much sense but again, Juga claims to be over 200 years old).

Making matters even more confusing is that Reima somehow knows what the Empire is from the beginning, even though no matter how you look at it it shouldn't have existed for hundreds of years at this point. idk maybe he'd somehow heard of it before Purple Wolf's rebellion or after it, I honestly have no clue.

There's also the matter of Purple Wolf himself, because we basically know nothing about him other than him usurping the throne from Reima's father. Did he re-establish the Empire right away? Did he simply crown himself king and converting the kingdom into an empire came later? How did Gaia succeed him? Was Purple Wolf his father or did Gaia take the kingdom/empire from him by force? Was Gaia the one who turned the kingdom into an empire?

Honestly, sometimes it really shows that Yoshi was making the wolf arc as he went along so trying to piece the lore of it together in a sensible manner isn't easy.

[Arano]

I don't know whether this helps or makes things more complicated, but Kingdom = implication is that it is ruled by an oligarchy ie a King passed down through one families generations, in this case Reima is a rightful King had he stayed alive and retaken the throne in the manga as Digsu says.
Reima referring to himself as the Lord of the Palace wolves would check out as I think the semantics is that although he still rules his "Palace", his Kingdom was overthrown so he can't call himself a King or even a Prince in that regard of a land that he didn't inherit.

Empire is different from Kingdom as it has to be made up of separate "colonies" under one King or Emperor, so Gaia's kin's Imperial* pack killing Reima's parents and taking over the Underground Kingdom by force is them absorbing that colony into their self-proclaimed Empire. Empire being indicative of how Gaia wants all wolf kind to be ruled under him.
*Imperial is a synonym for Empire.

I get that it's confusing because you can still have a King or an Emperor ruling an Empire, but I feel like Takahashi was using these to try and distinguish who is the more powerful between them. Empires are generally the largest and most powerful vs a Kingdom.

Being British I should know more about these distinctions lmao sigh